Ghostwriting

Two new reports involving the painkiller Vioxx raise fresh concerns about how drug companies influence the interpretation and publication of medical research. The reports claim that Merck & Co. frequently paid academic scientists to take credit for research articles prepared by company-hired medical writers, a practice called ghostwriting.

“Ghost-Writer,” now in its West Coast premiere at International City Theatre, starts off sluggishly, with an extended expositional monologue that, while poetical, seems a somewhat logy way to commence. Ignore that static prelude. Playwright Michael Hollinger, who has penned such well-regarded works as “Opus” and “Incorruptible,” soon has us in the grip of his assured creative hand. The play was inspired by an anecdote about Henry James' secretary, who claimed she continued channeling the master's words after his death.

For a writer who's made the bestseller lists five times in the last 10 years, William Novak has an identity problem. How else to describe a man who wrote one of the most popular nonfiction books of all time, yet is unknown to most Americans? Soft-spoken and urbane, Novak is not a fixture on talk shows or a regular at Elaine's.

There are hundreds of spirited musical tales in "When I Left Home," Buddy Guy's new autobiography, which offers a colorful account of his 50-year-long tenure as perhaps the most influential guitar slinger in Chicago blues. One of the best comes when the young Guy, having recently headed north from Louisiana in the late 1950s to make his fortune, meets Muddy Waters, the reigning pasha of Chicago's blues scene, sitting in a red Chevy wagon parked behind a club, eating cold cuts. "His dark skin had a glow," Guy recalls.

An investigation of possible fraud by candidates for Los Angeles police chief was ordered Tuesday, after departing Chief Daryl F. Gates and a senior LAPD commander told the Civil Service Commission that some applicants used ghostwriters to prepare crucial essays on the department's future. "Quite frankly, I know a couple of people who went out and had that essay done for them," Gates told the panel as he launched his latest salvo against the process set up to choose his successor.

David Fisher sold the idea of ghostwriting George Burns' book about Gracie Allen on a two-liner: "For forty years, my act consisted of one joke. And then she died." In 13 words, Fisher evoked Burns' voice and vaudevillian's timing. Burns loved it. As he wrote "Gracie: A Love Story"--Burns' gravel voice channeling through him--Fisher envisioned Burns sitting in a chair opposite him, puffing an El Producto cigar, telling tales of Gracie.

City officials have launched a probe of possible fraud by candidates for Los Angeles police chief, but the man whose allegations touched off the investigation--current Chief Daryl F. Gates--on Wednesday called the inquiry "asinine" and said he would not cooperate. "No, I'm not going to tell them anything," Gates said in a telephone interview from Vancouver, Canada, where he was attending a conference. "I don't know anything. I mean, I have no verified proof."

When children tune in to Fox on Oct. 3, the Saturday morning that the animated series "X-Men" had been set to premiere, they will be greeted by . . . a new PBS series. The idea, according to both Fox and PBS, is to promote the show--which is called "Ghostwriter" and uses a mystery format to promote literacy--to children who might otherwise not watch PBS.

Gerold Frank, 91, author who pioneered the "as told to" celebrity biography. Frank achieved global success in his collaboration with Mike Connolly and singer Lillian Roth on her memoir, "I'll Cry Tomorrow," which was made into a 1955 film starring Susan Hayward. Frank also assisted gossip columnist Sheilah Graham on "Beloved Infidel," the story of her relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald. That book was also made into a film in 1959 starring Gregory Peck and Deborah Kerr.

In the spring of 1949, Eleanor Roosevelt turned in the manuscript for her second memoir — this one on the White House years — to her editors at Ladies' Home Journal. "You have written this too hastily," came the reply, "as though you were composing it on a bicycle while pedaling your way to a fire." Roosevelt's editors asked her to revise the manuscript with the help of a ghostwriter, but she refused. "I would have felt the book wasn't mine," she said. She ended up selling her book's serial rights to the Journal's biggest rival, McCall's, for $150,000.

August 3, 2008 | Jim Ruland, Jim Ruland is the author of the short story collection "Big Lonesome."

WHAT would you do if you could possess everything you wanted -- wealth, power, notoriety -- except the one true love of your life? This is the question that frames Helmut Krausser's novel "Eros," which details one Alexander von Brucken's pursuit of Sofie, a girl he meets in a World War II bomb shelter during a raid on Munich, where his father owns an armament factory. Such was Von Brucken's attraction to Sofie that he began to look forward to the attacks with lustful anticipation.

Two new reports involving the painkiller Vioxx raise fresh concerns about how drug companies influence the interpretation and publication of medical research. The reports claim that Merck & Co. frequently paid academic scientists to take credit for research articles prepared by company-hired medical writers, a practice called ghostwriting.

Former football star O.J. Simpson says a chapter from his unpublished book, "If I Did It," that hypothesizes how he would have killed his ex-wife and her friend was created mostly from a ghostwriter's research and is not a confession. "I'm saying it's a fictional creation," Simpson said Sunday in a telephone interview. "It has so many [factual] holes in it that anybody who knew anything about it would know that I didn't write it."

Herman Klurfeld's secret life ended one day in January 1952 when a New York Post photographer emerged from the bushes of his Long Island apartment building and snapped away. At the time, Klurfeld told reporters he was a shoe salesman, but the cover of the Post the next day told the real story. "Winchell's No. 1 Ghost," the headline blared. Klurfeld, the longtime ghostwriter for fabled gossip columnist Walter Winchell, died Monday of a heart arrhythmia at his home in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 90.

I am hovering just to the rear and right of the author seated at a table signing copies of my novel. He's having a grand old time chatting up friends, colleagues and neighbors who have stopped by the bookstore to congratulate him. As his eyes keep darting to the door to see who's coming through Dutton's glass-and-steel portal on North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills, I just know he's hoping it will be a producer, director or actor who'll slap an option offer on the table within the next three days.

Joseph J. DiMona, a best-selling novelist and a ghostwriter of nonfiction for such well-known figures as President Richard Nixon's aide H.R. "Bob" Haldeman and former Los Angeles County Coroner Thomas Noguchi, has died. He was 77. DiMona died Saturday of liver cancer at his Los Angeles home, said his wife, Barbara.

"It's done in a fun way," says Blaze Berdahl, 11, explaining how "Ghostwriter" encourages kids to read and write. The new PBS series, which features an original hip-hop musical score for each of its 42 episodes, helps kids read as they help solve a mystery. The show, aimed for kids between 7 and 10, gets a sneak preview Saturday on the Fox network.

Joseph J. DiMona, a best-selling novelist and a ghostwriter of nonfiction for such well-known figures as President Richard Nixon's aide H.R. "Bob" Haldeman and former Los Angeles County Coroner Thomas Noguchi, has died. He was 77. DiMona died Saturday of liver cancer at his Los Angeles home, said his wife, Barbara.

Gerold Frank, 91, author who pioneered the "as told to" celebrity biography. Frank achieved global success in his collaboration with Mike Connolly and singer Lillian Roth on her memoir, "I'll Cry Tomorrow," which was made into a 1955 film starring Susan Hayward. Frank also assisted gossip columnist Sheilah Graham on "Beloved Infidel," the story of her relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald. That book was also made into a film in 1959 starring Gregory Peck and Deborah Kerr.